Wichita eagle., 1887-05-10
THE STAGE BACK FALL"
4 BUSINESS WHICH FEW ACTORS
CARE TO UNDERTAKE.

| JAKE ~ ONDER AXE.
The Terror of the Professional Geniu,
Whom no Fear of Broken Bones Could
| Misunderstanding Incident-An Awful
| Fall.
"The business of the stage known to actors
| as the back fall, ," said well known member
Of the theatrical profession, 'has moro terror
to the actor, and is attempted with more
apprehension than any other mechanical
necessity of the art. There are few persons
On the stage, no matter how long and ardu-
Gus their experience has been, who can do it,
or who will attempt it. heard Will Stuart
say once that famous star actress had told
him that she would give her months receipts,
| and they were then among the thousands, il
she was able to do the back fall successfully,
as its effect on an audience is tremendous.
But the apparent certainty that to attempt it
would result in a broken neck or back always
deferred her, as it has every other actress,
from making any effort to master the accom-
plishment-and not only every actress, but
actor as WELL
Il never saw but one man on the stage who
could do the Back fall to perfection, and who
wasn't afraid to do it, and that was Joe
Nagle. guess every old actor remembers
Back Fall joe His stamping ground was
the untamed west, but he has played in this
city, in the heaviest of heavy parts, at the
old Bowery theatre and later at Woods
museum. can't say whether Joe is alive
yet or not, but never heard of his death, and
dare say that he is delighting his particularly
Cppreciative audiences somewhere in the west,
where he was always an immense favorite in
the lurid drama He was way above the
average melodramatic performers, and with
the effective back fall to help him he always
brought down the house.
STIFF AS A FALLING TREE.
"Joe Nagle was man over six feet high,
and his gigantic frame was splendidly filled
out. He was as straight as an Indian, and to
see that great form of his topping over and
falling backward, as stiff as a falling tree,
and with no more apparent power of resist
ance to or consciousness of the fall than tree
would have, was something so startlingly
realistic that it never failed to drive even the
coolest audience frantic He would come
down with q thud that showed plainly there
was no nonsense about the fall, but at the
same time he caught all his weight on his
hands, the same as an actor does in the Or
binary every day fall on the stage.
"Whenever Nagle was to play in a strange
company he always rehearsed this back fall
to the members, so that they might become
used to it, as he knew if he sprang it on 'em
without warning it would break them up for
the whole performance. But even after the
perilous acrobatic feat had been done before
the company time and time again, actors on
the stage with Maggie during the performance
were still SO frequently nervous and ratified
when he came to do his fall that they would
involuntarily start forward with outstretched
hands as if to catch him, SO real and 'un-
stacy was the act, even to men and women
used to all the gymnastic and acrobatic bust
ness of their art. Poor Frank Murdoch, who,
although good actor, found his best road to
fame as the author of 'Davy Crockett the
piece that made Frank Mayo rich and cele-
DRAFTED, came near giving Nagle his last back
fall once, through this nervousness and in
voluntary interference in the performance of
the act. Nagle had noticed Franks great
nervousness on several occasions, and had
warned him to control himself. For said
Joe, if my mind is taken off of this fall for
a second wouldn't give much for my neck
tNDLn LANA1ANN SlhSC lANIIS.
Zone night Joe stiffened himself for the fall
under particularly exciting circumstances
Murdoch stood near him, and, as he after
ward said, when he saw that big form Of
Nagle's begin to tumble over backward, like
the topping of some great column, the sight
was so real that he could not control himself,
and he stepped quickly forward and stretched
his arm out under the falling actor before he
regained his composure The arm touched
Maggie, and, instead of coming down on the
stage rigid and straight, he fell all in heap,
and was SO badly hurt that he had to be car
ried off the stage. He was Frustrated for
long time and suffered intensely. But he got
well, and l saw him do the back fall with all
his realism several times after that
They tell a story about Joe and his back
fall during a star engagement at the Cleve-
land theatre while Clara Morris was playing
minor parts i'll the company there. / don't
the play, but whatever it was Miss
Morris was cast as the daughter of the hero,
which was Nagle's part. There came crisis |
in his part where it was incumbent on him to |
introduce his great back fall, and although |
bis hands were an important adjunct in the |
feat, be was seized by some strange within, |
and as Miss Morris, as his daughter, was |
about to take leave Of him, according to the
stage directions, he caught her hands and |
took her down with him in bis awful fall. |
Miss Morris afterward said that it seemed to |
Der as if she were falling from some great
height, as she went down in one grand sweep
with the gigantic form of the actor Nagle |
lad not the support Of his hands in this fall,
put he spread his length out on the stage
without the relaxation of muscle, and as
he astonished and frightened daughter disen-
angled herself, safe and unhurt, from the
awful wreck of her father, the audience went
Wild with enthusiasm, and Back Fall Nagle
lever before received such recognition Of
lis overlapping genius. New York Sun